Expository Thoughts
be seen? How many around us really believe what the Bible contains? How many live as if they believed that Christ died for them, and that there is a judgment, a heaven, and a hell? These are most painful and serious inquiries. But they demand and deserve an answer.
Have we faith ourselves? If we have, let us bless God for it. It is a great thing to believe all the Bible. It is matter for daily thankfulness if we feel our sins, and really trust in Jesus. We may be weak, frail, erring, short-coming sinners. But do we believe? That is the grand question. If we believe, we shall be saved. But he that believes not, shall not see life, and shall die in his sins. (John 3:36; 8:24.)
Notes on 18:1-8
1. Should always pray. This does not mean that a person should be constantly performing the act of prayer. It means that a person should constantly keep up the habit of prayer and endeavor to be always in a prayerful frame of mind.
2. "In a certain town." My own impression is that the parable was meant simply to describe the duty of individual believers during the whole period of the present dispensation and to encourage them to persevering prayer by holding out the hope that God will at length, when things seem at the worst, plead their cause.
3. "A widow." The helpless and friendless condition of a widow in the East in Bible times should be remembered. See Exodus 22:22; Deuteronomy 10:18; Job 29:13; 1 Kings 17:9, 12.
7. "Who cry out to him day and night." This is doubtless a proverbial expression signifying a habit of continual prayer.
8. "He will see that they get justice." This sentence points to the second coming of Christ. To us it seems long delayed. But a thousand years in God's sight are but as one day (2 Peter 3:8).
There is doubtless an implied lesson here, that persevering prayer is the secret of keeping up faith. Augustine says, "When faith fails, prayer dies. In order to pray, then, we must have faith; and that our faith fail not, we must pray. Faith pours forth prayer; and the pouring forth of the heart in prayer gives steadfastness to faith."
LUKE 18:9-14
PARABLE OF THE PHARISEE AND THE TAX COLLECTOR
The parable we have now read is closely connected with the one which immediately precedes it. The parable of the persevering widow teaches the value of importunity in prayer. The parable of the Pharisee and tax-collector teaches the spirit which should pervade our prayers. The first parable encourages us to pray and faint not.
The second parable reminds us how and in what manner we ought to pray. Both should be often pondered by every true Christian.
Let us notice, firstly, the sin against which our Lord Jesus
Christ warns us in these verses. There is no difficulty in finding out this. Luke tells us expressly, that "He spoke this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others." The sin which our Lord denounces is "selfrighteousness."
We are all naturally self-righteous. It is the family-disease of all the children of Adam. From the highest to the lowest we think more highly of ourselves than we ought to do. We secretly flatter ourselves that we are not so bad as some, and that we have something to recommend us to the favor of God. "Most men will proclaim every one his own goodness." (Prov. 20:6.) We forget the plain testimony of Scripture, "In many things we offend all." "There is not a just man upon earth, that does good and sins not"— "What is man that he should be clean, or he that is born of a woman that he should be righteous?" (James 3:2. Eccles. 7:20. Job 15:14.)
The true cure for self-righteousness is self-knowledge. Once let the eyes of our understanding be opened by the Spirit, and we shall talk no more of our own goodness. Once let us see what there is in our own hearts, and what the holy law of God requires, and selfconceit will die. We shall lay our hand on our mouths, and cry with the leper, "Unclean, unclean." (Levit. 13:45.)
Let us notice, secondly, in these verses, the prayer of the Pharisee, which our Lord condemns. We read that he said, "God, I thank you that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax-collector. I fast twice in the week. I give tithes of all I possess."
One great defect stands out on the face of this prayer—a defect so glaring that even a child might mark it. It exhibits no sense of sin and need. It contains no confession and no petition—no acknowledgment of guilt and emptiness—no supplication for mercy and grace. It is a mere boasting recital of fancied merits, accompanied by an uncharitable reflection on a brother sinner. It is a proud, highminded profession, destitute alike of penitence, humility, and charity. In short, it hardly deserves to be called a prayer at all.
No state of soul can be conceived so dangerous as that of the Pharisee. Never are men's bodies in such desperate plight, as when disease and insensibility set in. Never are men's hearts in such a hopeless condition, as when they are not sensible of their own sins.
He that would not make shipwreck on this rock, must beware of measuring himself by his neighbors. What does it signify that we are more moral than "other men?" We are all vile and imperfect in the sight of God. "If we contend with Him, we cannot answer him one in a thousand." (Job 9:3.) Let us remember this. In all our selfexamination let us not try ourselves by comparison with the standard of men. Let us look at nothing but the requirements of God. He that acts on this principle will never be a Pharisee.
Let us notice, thirdly, in these verses, the prayer of the taxcollector, which our Lord commends. That prayer was in every respect the very opposite of that of the Pharisee. We read that he "stood afar off, and smote upon his breast, and said, God be merciful to me a sinner." Our Lord Himself stamps this short prayer with the seal of His approbation. He says, "I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other." The excellence of the Taxcollector's prayer consists in five points, each of which deserves attention.